New Movie: The Catcher Was a Spy

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by Jason19th

If you give the book a close read it seems like there are a lot of questions as to what Berg really did and what the folklore is. For example there is a story that he basically picked up a few books on the boat ride to Japan and managed to be conversational by the time the boat docked. The book however suggests that in reality Berg could only say a few common phrases in Japanese. The book also hints towards some possible mental health issues that Moe may have had. I wonder to what extent the movie will deal with the less heroic possibilities

Yes, you said it. I read the book a couple of months ago and it painted a picture of a (very?) intelligent guy, but most, if not all, of the spy stuff seemed anecdotal at best. Over and over again the author asserted that no one really knew what he was up to at any given time, so I came to the conclusion that his spycraft was possibly more incidental than anything else. Perhaps I am 'misremembering,' but when he made films of Tokyo during the baseball tour there, for instance, he wasn't sent to do that, right? Wasn't it years later, after Pearl Harbor, when he said something to the effect of, "Wait, I have some films from years ago showing the landscape of Tokyo that our guys might be able to use."???